


Key's Great Grocery Shopping Adventure 2k16

by katrinawritesthings



Series: Jonghoodie au [2]
Category: SHINee
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, NB, Nonbinary, OT5, Other, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2017-04-21
Packaged: 2018-10-22 01:01:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10686543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katrinawritesthings/pseuds/katrinawritesthings
Summary: “I am tired,” Key hisses, “of going to the store. With this list.” She jiggles her bag with a scowl. “And coming home. And having you–all of you–whine at me that I didn’t get you the right thing.” She yanks open the front door and ushers them all outside, fixing Tae’s hair again when ve passes. “So we are all going to go to the store,” she repeats as Minho and Junghee pass. “And you are all going to tell me exactly what you mean when you just put down generic shit likecereal. Jinki,”she adds pointedly, throwing them a glare when they pause to lock the door behind them.tumblr





	Key's Great Grocery Shopping Adventure 2k16

Key is calm. She is calm and collected and chill as she reads over the grocery list the others have left for her. Milk. Bacon. Cereal. Yogurt. Bread. Deodorant. Bananas. _Veggies-_ -halfway down her hand clenches and wrinkles the paper and she drops it onto the table, taking a deep, steadying breath. She is _calm_. Cool. Like a cucumber. She picks up the list again and flattens it out neatly. She is calm. **  
**

Walking from the kitchen to the living room, she finds everyone right where she left them: Jinki in the corner of the couch, Junghee snuggled between their legs, Minho sitting up in the middle, Tae on the floor with ver legs up on the last cushion. Only Jinki glances up from the tv when she walks in, but when she clears her throat, the other three look over as well.

“I’m going shopping,” she announces, brightly but not with _too much_ pep that it becomes suspicious. She holds up the list for everyone to see. “Is everything on here?” She gets a few vague nods of agreement, a mumbled “yeah” from Minho. Just like usual. She wiggles it again. “You’re _sure_?” she asks, and--

“Oh, wait,” Tae says quickly. Ve rolls over the carpet, does half a sit up, and snatches the paper from Key’s fingers. Grabbing a pen from the coffee table, ve scribbles something quickly before handing it back up. “Okay, yeah,” ve says. Key takes it and reads what ve’s written: “chips.”

Her eye twitches. She takes a deep breath, stops herself from crumpling the paper up right there, and lets it out slowly.

“Okay,” she says. “Everyone is _completely sure_ that _this list_ has _everything_ that I need to get?” This part is crucially important. She gets more nods, and this time, a little frown from Jinki.

“I mean, yeah,” they say, sounding like they’re confused as to why Key is putting so much emphasis on things. Key smiles. Lovely. She folds the list--calmly--and slots it into her wallet, and then slots her wallet into her bag, and then claps her hands together.

“Okay,” she says. “Everyone get the fuck up.”

“What?” Jinki asks, but Key is already bending down to grab Tae’s wrists and tug ver to ver feet.

“Hey, what--ow,” Tae whines. Key fluffs ver hair out straight and marches to stand in front of Minho.

“Up,” she demands, reaching for his arms next. Minho stumbles as Key pulls him up; when she turns next to Junghee and Jinki, she finds them already scrambling to their feet through their confusion. She snorts. Good. “We are _all_ ,” she says, stressing that word very clearly, “going to the store.” She gets behind Minho and pushes him forward gently but firmly enough to actually make him go. He pushes Tae towards the door with him.

“I--Key, what?” he asks. “I can’t, I have--things--like, stuff, to--”

“You do not,” Key cuts him off briskly. “I know that you do not.” She knows because she specifically asked him, asked _all_ of them, to clear their schedules for today.

“ _Why?_ ” Junghee asks, pouting even though she’s shuffling obediently after Minho. Key takes another steadying breath as she waves Jinki after her as well.

“Because I am _tired,_ ” she hisses, “of going to the store. With this list.” She jiggles her bag with a scowl. “And coming home. And having you-- _all_ of you--whine at me that I didn’t get you the right thing.” She yanks open the front door and ushers them all outside, fixing Tae’s hair again when ve passes. “So we are all going to go to the store,” she repeats as Minho and Junghee pass. “And you are all going to tell me _exactly_ what you mean when you just put down generic shit like _cereal. Jinki,_ ” she adds pointedly, throwing them a glare when they pause to lock the door behind them. Jinki’s head ducks in shame and they hiss out a quiet “fuck.” Key snorts and shoos them to follow everyone else.

They all pile into Jinki’s van, Junghee not even trying to argue with Key for her regular shotgun spot. Key clambers in after she’s made sure everyone else is in already and buckles herself up. Jinki has never looked more apprehensive as they start the car and Key smiles pleasantly at herself in the rearview mirror. This is going to be good.

~

“Ooh--” Tae circles around the cart as Key is looking through the bread wall. Ve keeps one hand on the end of it and reaches for a seethrough plastic container of cookies. “Nice,” ve hisses. These are ver favorite. Sweet and crunchy with the sugar sprinkles that ve loves. Ve slips back around to the handle of the cart and bounces lightly on ver toes as Jinki pokes between raisin bread and cinnamon raisin bread with a shrug. J pokes one from where they’re clinging to Jinki’s arm. Key grabs it and turns to put it in the cart, and that’s when Tae holds up the cookies.

“Look,” ve smiles. “The ones I like.” Ve moves to place them gently into the front basket of the cart, but before ve can set them down, Key’s hand stops them.

“Oh, hmm, I don’t see those on the list?” she says, holding up the paper with a confused tilt of the head. Tae’s smile falters. That was her fake voice, her passive-agressive acting, her pretending to not understand tone.

“I mean….” ve mumbles. “Yeah, but--”

“Sorry, not what we came here for,” Key says immediately. She pushes the container fully into Tae’s hand. “Put them back.”

“But--”

“Now.”

Tae drags ver fingers through the bars of the cart with a sigh as ve puts the cookies back onto their stand.

~

Jonghyun shuffles along quietly, half behind Jinki and half clinging to their arm. He’s cold. And guilty. And ashamed. Part of this whole thing is his fault. Maybe if he had been more specific on the list then Gwiboon wouldn’t have gotten so frustrated. He didn’t even notice she was getting fed up with all of them. She’d asked them to be clearer with what they wanted before, yeah, but Jonghyun never thought it was this bad for her. He’s a trash datefriend. A cold, shivery trash--

“Hey. Jung.” Jonghyun starts at his name, fingers twitching into Jinki’s hoodie sleeve. He peeps out around Jinki’s shoulder to see Gwiboon standing in front of the dairy wall--so much bigger than Jonghyun had been imagining--with her hands on her hips. “C’mere,” Gwiboon says, beckoning him with a finger. Jonghyun sighs. Time to descend into the void. He scoots around Jinki and up to Gwiboon, fingers pulling his own hoodie collar up to cover his mouth. Gwiboon takes his shoulders and turns him gently to face the shelves.

“Do you see. All of these yogurts?” Gwiboon says, gesturing wide to the whole wall. Jonghyun winces. Yes, he sees all of the yogurts here. They take up an entire section of shelves. He never knew there were this many. He nods a tiny little nod, pulling his collar even farther up over his nose. “Which one do you _mean,_ ” Gwiboon says clearly, “when you just put down. _Yogurt_. On this list?” She wiggles the paper and Jonghyun feels his shame increasing with each little crinkle noise that it makes. He shuffles forward, squints at all of the labels, and bends towards the second shelf. He grabs a 32oz tub of nonfat french vanilla greek yoplait yogurt and places it quickly into the cart. Then he stares at his feet as he shuffles away from the handle.

“Thank you,” Gwiboon says. “And, hey.” She taps Jonghyun’s shoulder; Jonghyun looks up, small and apprehensive. Gwiboon fixes his bangs under his hood. “I’m not mad at you,” she says gently. She tugs Jonghyun’s collar down just enough to drop a kiss onto his cheek. “And you’re cute.” She gives him a little wink and a little butt pat before pushing the cart forward again.

Heat creeps up into Jonghyun’s cheeks as he stands there. Oh. Ooh. A tiny smile creeps onto his lips as well. He’s cute. Holy frickie. He feels Jinki’s arm wrapping around his waist and tugging him along so he trusts Jinki to lead him and puts his face in his hands, hiding his pleased blush from the world. Suddenly he’s not feeling so bad.

When they stop again in front of the milk sections (“C’mere, fucko, what the _fuck_ does ‘milkshake’ mean?” Gwiboon asks Tae), he switches his thin hoodie for Jinki’s thicker one and feels even better.

~

Minho has never been more amused as he watches Key round on Jinki next in the hygiene aisle. Jonghyun, considerably less small and anxious than when this little trip started but still pretty embarrassed, puts his tube of face cream in the cart and then wiggles over to cling to Minho’s arm. Minho leans back against the wall of toothbrushes to wrap his arms around Jonghyun’s waist and hold him against his chest. Jonghyun nuzzles his neck with a demanding noise, so he presses a little kiss to his cheek and slips his hand underneath his hoodie to rub his tummy slowly. Jonghyun’s soft hum of contentment vibrates against his skin. Nice.

Looking back to the others, he smirks when Key gestures to the whole shelf of deodorants and Jinki kind of just reaches over and picks one out with a sheepish little shrug. He can’t believe he wanted to skip out on this masterpiece of an adventure.

Key turns to Tae next, who’s busy trying to sneak some strawberry bubble bath soap into the cart. Key snatches the bottle out of ver hand and then gives it right back with an order to put it away. Tae’s disgusted glare and borderline chucking of the bottle back onto the shelf makes Minho snort. When Tae finishes with that, Key holds ver shoulders at arm’s length.

“Okay,” she says. “You did not put it on the list this time because you don’t need it right now, but. When you say ‘bodywash.’ What. The fuck. Do you mean?”

“Um,” Tae says. “Strawberry.”

“What size?” Key asks.

“The big ones.”

“Moisturizing?”

“Cleansing.”

“With or without the little beads?”

“Without. They’re bad for the fishies.”

“What brand?”

“I--um.”

“Go look,” Key says, pointing Tae to the shelves a few feet down. Tae sighs, slouching over there and tugging the cart with ver. Jonghyun follows, so Minho shuffles after him, resting his chin on his head. When Tae looks back to Key and mumbles a quiet, “Dove,” Minho moves to muffle soft giggles into Jonghyun’s hair.

“Hey.” Minho looks up at the sharp snap of Key’s voice, eager to see which one she’s frowning at now; his grin slides right off his face when he realizes that glare is pointed directly at him. Oh. “Don’t be so smug over there, Choi,” Key says, pointing over Jonghyun’s head at him. “We just haven’t _gotten_ to your shit yet. Your gatorade, or, the _entire fucking produce section_ where your _‘veggies’_ are.” She snaps the list in Minho’s face and Minho looks away, ashamed. Fuck.

His cheeks burn when Jinki nudges his side with a little smirk.

~

There is a child following them.

Like, a literal child, tiny and pudgy, toddling on behind their group as they march through the store. And they’re staring at Jinki.

Jinki is very flustered. They don’t know how the fuck to deal with kids. They can’t even tell how old they are. Four? Six? Ten? They all look the same to them when they’re small. Is it creepy for them to be staring back at this child?

They look away quickly just in case it is. They’re all standing in the snack aisle and Kibum is going to each one of them and making them spell out exactly what kind of chips they mean when they write them in on the list. Jinki doesn’t eat junk food so they are blessedly free of that whole ordeal. Which also makes them unblessedly stuck in this ordeal with the kid, who is still staring at them when they peek back.

“Oh, jeez,” they sigh. They’re not gonna leave. They glance back over their shoulder; Jonghyun is on her toes to reach a bag of doritos and Minho is just standing there and watching her struggle. The other two are arguing about the fifth thing Tae has tried to sneak into the cart so far. Jinki turns back to the kid with another sigh. Whatever. They can do this. They just have to ask them where their adults are and then find them and hand them over. Easy.

They struggle with figuring out what to do with their hands as they walk down the aisle for so long that they’ve reached the kid before they’ve done it.

“Uh, hey… kiddo,” they say, crouching down a little and putting their hands on their knees. “What are you doing here?” They don’t answer; they just look at them, look over their shoulder at the other four, and then look back. Jinki smiles as friendly as they can without crossing the border into creepy. “What’s your name?” they ask. No answer. Already this is harder than they thought. “Where are your parents?” they try next. “Or... caretakers?” They stay silent, but reach for their shirt collar and bring it up to cover their mouth, head tilted down but eyes peeping up. It’s an extremely familiar gesture and Jinki feels their soul filling with automatic sympathy.

“Okay, um,” they say. “Do you want me to help you look for them?” There’s another long silence; then, when Jinki is about to give up and just say goodbye to this child, they give them a tiny, tiny, nod. Jini blinks. Oh. Honestly, they’re not sure if they’re relieved or not for it. They stand up anyway, and hesitate before offering them their hand. Would it be weird for them to hold the hand of this kid that they don’t know? Especially as someone that the general population would assume to be an adult man? Probably. Though, they don’t know how they would be able to tell that this kid wasn’t their own. That kind of makes it creepier, though, they think. This is so complicated.

They settle on offering the kid their pinky to hold and start shuffling out of the aisle to begin their search.

~

Tae sighs as ve rests ver cheek on ver hands on the handle of the cart, bent at an arch that’s horrible for ver back to do so. Ve’s bored. Ve pushes and pulls the cart back and forth tiredly as ve rereads the little label on the bacon for the third time. Soft grunting from ver left makes ver look up. When ve sees what it is, ve blinks slowly and looks away again. Just Key struggling to lift a forty-pack of water bottles from a low shelf. Ve listens to her soft noises of exertion for a solid nineteen seconds until ve finally feels the heavy thud of the water into the lower part of the basket. Key struggles some more to push it fully in and then stands up straight, leaning on the side with annoyed pants.

“Where the fuck is Minho?” she asks. Tae waves ver hand lazily twice to the right to mean that he’s two aisles down.

“With J in the toy aisle,” ve mumbles. Key snorts.

“How come you’re not with them?” she asks. Tae shrugs tiredly and tightens ver grip on the cart.

“One time when I was little my dad took me shopping and I wandered off and he forgot about me and left me there for like, two hours,” ve says. Ve wasn’t a fan of the experience.

“Oh,” Key says. “Yikes, wow.” Tae feels her finger poking ver cheek and looks up into serious eyes. “This isn’t, like, super triggering or anything for you, is it?” she asks. “Like, shit, I wouldn’t have--”

“No, I’m fine, it’s good,” Tae says, waving away Key’s concern. Ve wasn’t staring into space because ve was dissociating through a flashback or anything. Just because ve was bored. If ve couldn’t go through with this trip ve would have texted Key during the ride here and asked to stay in the car or something. Ve nods again when Key gives him this look like she’s asking if it’s _really_ okay. “I’m just,” ve says. “Never going to let go. Of this cart. Ever.” Ve pats the handle gently. Ver new best friend until they leave. Key looks at ver for a few more seconds before nodding.

“If you say so,” she says, and bumps Tae away from the handle. Tae clings to the side of the cart and shuffles along, feet heavy. As they pass one aisle, a bag of goldfish catches ver eye.

“Actually,” ve says, stopping and using ver hand on the cart to stop Key also. “Can I get some of these to, like, ease my struggles of--”

“Are they on the list?” Key asks flatly. Tae sighs loudly and slouches against Key’s shoulder.

“No,” ve grumbles.

“Were you trying to imply that your past abandonment trauma was worth approximately one small bag of fish-shaped cheese crackers?” Key asks next. Tae scrunches up ver face.

“Shut up,” ve says. Ve didn’t ask to be exposed. Key rolls her shoulder to move Tae off and rolls the cart further along the linoleum.

~

“En garde, you roguish sea mast,” Jonghyun exclaims, jabbing at Minho fiercely with his foam sword. It’s handle is still in the cardboard and the tag whips against his skin, but he pokes at Minho’s returning stabs anyway.

“I’m glad,” Minho says, whapping away one of Jonghyun’s more clever attacks and trying to stab for his tummy. “That you’re,” he grunts as Jonghyun backs out of the way. “Verbal enough again,” he steps forward and lunges wildly. “To insult me,” he finishes, and Jonghyun snorts. It’s not his fault his mood and anxiety both lifted completely with childlike wonder when they passed the toy aisle. He plays those old dress up games online when he’s feeling down for a reason.

“Thanks, you fucking street lamp,” he says, wiggling his sword up near Minho’s head. He’s so fucking tall. It offends Jonghyun. He needs to cut him down to size. Minho snorts, though, and only barely manages to avoid his next jab.

“I thought you were being a pirate?” he asks. “Did street lamps exist then?”

“I mean,” Jonghyun says, pausing for a moment to think. “I’m pretty s--hey, what--heyyy,” he whines. Minho smirks at him and wiggles his foam sword deeper into the space between Jonghyun’s arm and side. Jonghyun pouts, grabbing the handle and swooning dramatically.

“You distracted me,” he wails. “That’s cheating.” Now he’s dead and it wasn’t fair in the slightest. Minho reaches out to catch him around the waist; he leans most of his weight on Minho’s hands and clutches weakly at his collar. “Goodbye… my sweet love,” he whispers, reaching up to brush his fingertips against Minho’s cheek. Minho rolls his eyes but he keeps going. He’s in the _zone_. “Though it was you that struck me down… my heart… still… hey, wait, wait--” He grabs onto Minho’s shoulder and hauls himself up straight. He’s out of the zone. “Look at those,” he says, pointing behind Minho and pushing gently passed him.

“What?” Minho asks. He grabs both swords and puts them back on the shelf and then comes to look. Jonghyun rifles through the soft plushie toys on the little stand until he finds what he thought he saw. He pulls the little brown toy poodle out and holds it up to show Minho, excited.

“It looks just like Comme Des,” he says, smiling at it’s little fluffy fuzz. It’s nearly identical to Gwiboon’s dog.

“Hey, yeah,” Minho says. He reaches into the pile of plush and pulls out another one. This one is black and Jonghyun gasps softly.

“Garcones,” he whispers.

“We have to buy these,” Minho whispers back. Jonghyun looks into his eyes, wide and serious, and they nod together. They _need_ to buy these. Gwiboon will love them.

“Oh, fuck, though,” he grimaces, and pouts at his dog. “Gwi won’t let us get shit that’s not on the list?”

“And if we want them to be a surprise anyway…,” Minho adds. Jonghyun sighs. Frick. They could come back another time, or--

“Hey. Choi.” Both of them jump at Gwiboon’s sudden voice. Jonghyun hurriedly grabs the dog in Minho’s hand and hides it behind his back. Leaning around Minho’s shoulder, he sees Gwiboon tapping her foot at the end of the aisle.

“Yeah?” Minho calls, glancing back at Jonghyun nervously.

“Your turn,” Key says, beckoning him with a dangerous finger. Jonghyun watches Minho grimace and pats him sympathetically. His doom has arrived.

“Okay, yeah,” Minho says. He starts walking, but backwards, looking at Jonghyun meaningfully. “Do you have your wallet on you?” he asks quietly. He nods behind Jonghyun; Jonghyun looks behind himself and realizes that the registers are right there. Holy shit. He looks back at Minho with wide eyes.

“I have my paypal on my phone,” he hisses. Minho makes flappy hands at him and that’s all he needs to take the dogs and run.

When he gets back, he resolves to keep his hands in his hoodie pocket for the entire rest of the time that they’re there to disguise the suspicious bulge.

~

Minho is so overwhelmed.

He stares at the shelves--the two _entire_ shelves--of gatorade bottles. Just. Nothing but sports drinks in a rainbow full of colors he’s never even seen before.

“What the fuck,” he says out loud.

 _“Yeah,”_ Key says pointedly. Minho glances at her with a guilty little grimace. This isn’t his fault. How the fuck was he supposed to know there were so many. The last time he bought gatorade there were like, four.

“I mean,” he says. “I _told_ you I liked the green kind.”

 _“Which_ green kind, Choi?” Key hisses, gesturing forcefully at a few rows of bottles. Minho grimaces again. That is a fuckton of green, yeah. He shuffles forward and squints at all of the labels, turning a few bottles so he can see clearly. When he finds he one he likes, he taps it.

“This one,” he says. Key comes over to look as well. Then she turns to Minho with a look of pure disgust.

 _“Cucumber-lime?_ ” she asks, lip curling. Minho frowns, offended.

“Yes,” he says. It’s fucking delicious. Key looks like she couldn’t disagree more if someone paid her as she grabs the bottle off of the shelf.

“You nasty,” she mumbles. Minho scoffs. Rude. And when Key reaches for the second bottle, he jumps, suddenly remembering.

“Oh, wait,” he says quickly. He grabs both bottles and puts them back. “I like the little ones, like….” He scans the shelves quickly until he finds the packs of sixteen single serving bottles. “These ones,” he says. They are small and cute and everything tastes better when it’s small and cute. Jonghyun is proof of that.

“Minho, those are like, three dollars more,” Key says flatly. “For less drink.” She pushes them further into the shelf. Minho pouts.

“Yeah, but, Kibummie,” he says with his whiny voice. He’s seen Jonghyun do that whenever he wants things from her and it always works for him. He holds his hands up close to measure a water bottle size. “Small,” he says. “For my jogs.” Key narrows her eyes like she saw right through his half-assed cute act. Well, shit.

“Do we or do we not own a thermos?” Key asks. She crosses her arms in superiority, but Minho kind of shrugs.

“Actually,” he says. “No. I’ve looked.” He doesn’t know how there isn’t one thermos between the five of them, but there isn’t. Key blinks.

“Oh,” she says. She grabs the big bottles again anyway. “We’ll buy one then,” she says decisively. Behind the cart, Tae scoffs.

“What, _he_ gets to get extra shit but _I_ don’t?” ve asks. Key points at ver warningly.

“You shut up,” she says. She lowers her finger, then pauses. Minho watches her point at Tae, and then Jonghyun clinging to Tae’s arm, and then turn to point at him. Then she pauses again with a confused frown. “Hey,” she says slowly. “Where’s Jinki?”

~

“So, have you done your taxes yet?” Jinki props their chin in their hand and blinks conversationally at the kid across from them. Prin still hasn’t told Jinki prins name, but when they asked about pronouns and explained what they were, prin thought long and hard for a moment before deciding on, “Prince. Ess. Princess. Both.”

Jinki approved greatly, and took their new royal friend to the little coffee shop by the front door for little cups of ice water. They figured prins parents would come by and spot them eventually, and they couldn’t get mad at them for giving their kid something so generic to slowly sip on. They are nailing this babysitting thing.

“What are taxes?” prin asks them. Jinki opens their mouth, then hesitates and closes it. Huh. They take a sip of their water and shrug.

“Honestly, I have no idea,” they admit. “When you get older and if you can afford it, just pay someone else to do them for you.” Their Aprils have become significantly easier since they stopped struggling to do them themself. “If they get it wrong you can sue them and everything,” they add. No problem.

“What’s ‘suing them’ mean?” the kid asks. Jinki hums thoughtfully into their cup.

“It’s like,” they say. “When someone does something that’s against the law to you, if you can prove that to a judge, then the judge can make them give you money and stuff for it.”

“Oh,” the kid says. “Neat.”

“Mmhmm,” Jinki hums. They like this child. Everything they say is brand new cool information to prin. “Hey,” they say. “Do you watch Stev--”

“Jinki, what in the heckie are you doing?”

“Hmm?” Jinki turns at a familiar voice and blinks when they find Kibum standing there, looking completely baffled at their conversation partner. Minho looks just as puzzled next to her and they catch Jonghyun and Tae peeping over from the cart in the checkout line. “Oh,” they say. “Hi. We were talking about taxes.” They smile proudly when Minho looks even more confused and Kibum sighs.

“Who is this?” she asks tiredly, gesturing to the kid. Jinki glances at prin with an encouraging little smile as they tug their shirt collar up over their mouth.

“Prin won’t tell me prins name,” they say. “But prin was following us around earlier so we’re waiting for prins parents.”

“Oh my gosh,” Kibum sighs.

“Prin, like, prince?” Minho asks.

“And princess,” Jinki corrects, seeing prin nod out of the corner of his eye. “Both.”

“Nice,” Minho says, reaching over to give prin a little high five.

“Jinki, why didn’t you get them to ask for prins parents over the loudspeaker?” Kibum asks. Jinki looks at her blankly.

“What?” they ask. Kibum looks back at them for a moment; then she sighs heavily again and shakes her head. She walks to the other side of the table and holds out a friendly hand.

“Sweetie, c’mere,” she says. “We’re gonna call your parents, okay? They’re worried about you.” Jinki watches prin take Kibum’s hand easily and follow her off to the nearest register. Hmm. That probably would have been a good idea fifteen minutes ago.

~

Key is calm, like _, actually_ calm this time, as she stands in line at the checkout and looks at their pile of stuff on the belt. It’s so nice and pretty and _specific._ She loves it. She glances up at the front of the cart where Tae is poking ver fingers through the holes with a little glare. Ve’s still grumpy that Key wouldn’t let ver get half the junk food in the store and a thing of sticky bubbles. Behind ver, Junghee is pouting at the little pile, specifically at her yogurt, and looking guilty again. Minho is frowning at everything too with his chin on Junghee’s head. He still looks smaller and more ashamed than Key has ever seen him and she grins. Good.

At the very back, Jinki is flipping through the tabloids with tired interest. When they catch Key’s eye, they put the magazine back and give her this smile that’s the perfect amount of both ashamed and apologetic. They also look just a touch smug about being able to hit the right emotion, and Key rolls her eyes. Whatever. Good enough.

When they reach the register, Minho scoots up to the front of the cart, Tae wiggles between the cart and the little candy shelves, and Junghee clings gently to Key’s arm.

“Hi!” The cashier says brightly. “Did you find everything okay?” they ask. They glance quickly at the other four as they start scanning the groceries and Key grins. She knows that they know that she usually just comes here alone.

“Yeah, we did, thanks,” she says. _For once_ , she adds in her mind. The smile pleasantly at her and continue on with their job, and Key leans happily against the cart.

Soon, out of the corner of her eye, she sees Tae slowly leaning into her field of view. She turns to ver with an arched brow; ve holds up a little pack of chocolate candy with the saddest puppy eyes Key has ever seen. Key sighs, grabs it, and tosses it onto the belt. Sure. Tae immediately brightens and bounces on ver feet, happy as a clam. What a cute shit. Jinki brushes passed her then, and grabs a pack of gum to put on the belt as well. Key snorts at them as well and they just shrug with a little grin.

She moves up in line when their groceries are all scanned, Junghee shuffling along behind her and nuzzling on her shoulder. Minho is helping the bagger put everything away, Tae is already opening ver little bag of candy, and Jinki is poking ver sides to make ver squirm. When Key takes out her wallet to swipe her card, she hears a little “oh!” from behind her. Junghee gently takes her wallet, rifles through it, and pulls out a little handful of quarters and dimes. She gives Key the tiniest smile as she squeezes passed her to drop them into the little donation box next to the register.

Within minutes after that they’re all back in the car, Jinki fixing up the rearview mirror, Junghee leaning against Minho’s shoulder in the back, and Tae clambering in after rolling the cart back to the little pickup station. Once everyone is buckled up, Key twists in her seat and holds up the list one final time.

“Okay,” she says to get everyone’s attention. “Are we ever going to have to do this again?” she asks. She gets a chorus of guilty, mumbled “no”s from every seat. “Are you going to put down what you actually want on the list from now on?” she asks. This time he gets a “yes” from three of them and a “yeah” from Tae. She smiles. “Good,” she says, and sits up straight. She stuffs the list into the garbage pocket of her bag and reaches over to pap Jinki’s elbow. “Now take us to go get ice cream.”

“Really?” is the excited reply from behind him. Junghee and Tae both lean forward on either side of her seat, smiles wide; Minho looks just as eager behind them and Jinki is giving her a hopeful little look. She snorts. One would think she was an asshole or something.

“Yes, really, I’m buying,” she says, grinning when Tae immediately reaches even further around the seat to manhandle her into half of a hug. “That was an ordeal and you’re all cute and deserving of ice cream or whatever. Come on.” She paps Jinki’s arm again. “Let’s go.”

 _“I have never platonically loved someone more in my life,_ ” Tae breathes into her ear. Laughter rises from Key’s chest even as he pushes Tae back into ver seat.

“Thanks, sure, okay,” she says. That’s a fucking lie but she still appreciates it. “Put your seatbelt back on.” Tae obeys quickly, eyes brighter than Key has seen them in weeks. Junghee is tapping her hands excitedly on her knees. Minho’s grin is as wide as his face. Jinki starts up the car, and Key smiles to herself as she leans back in her seat.


End file.
